Watson's weekly Jeffersonian. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1907, July 04, 1907, Page PAGE ELEVEN, Image 11

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Tacts and Tancies for the Tireside LETTER FROM AN OLD LADY IN A GEORGIA TOWN. The following fiom Collier’s f. r June 15, is the echo of a voice from the South rich in that quality which Southerners love but nowadays hear all too seldom: Slaves of the lamp in our unlovely little Babel, we scurry about from year end to year end at the bidding of our various masters. We never get rich enough nor famous enough, and although we ’croak a g eat deal and pretend we don’t like it, we know we do. Most of us came to New York from quieter places, wh.re folks lived every day instead of once a week and away back in our congested cerebra is a picture of the p’ace we are going to when the right time comes and we can run away to the Islands of the Blest. All of us in the special little eddy from which this paper is weekly spouted forth have such a picture, now, at , any rate, if \ve didn’t b ’fore —through the happy thought of the 14 Life in Our Town” contest —this letter came: 4 4 LaGrange, Ga., March 18,1907. <4 Dear Collier’s —I am an old lady just, entering my 71st year, but I love my old town and want to tell you about it. LaGrange is in mid dle Georgia, just two hoars’ ride from Atlanta. It has about 8,000 in habitants and is just full of life. We have six cotton mills, a guano fac tory, ice factory, two large female I colleges and a. public school with about 1,000 students. Paved streels, | electric lights and three large banks, 1 controlling lots of money.- We have I a historic town, too for here that sil | ver-tongue Benjamin H. Hill spent “ his happy childhood, here he brought his young bride, here his children were born and here his first maiden speeches proclaiming to the world what a grand man he was to be. His old colonial home still stands here as a memorial. Here also were the homes of Walter T. Colquitt and Gov ernor Alfred IT. Colquitt, United States senator from Georgia. 4 4 LaGrange 'is called the City of Elms and Roses, and if you could see it in spring time you would certainly say the name was honestly given. Our homes have all beautiful gardens. 1 do wish some of the Collier staff would come and see us and our town , and let us show you what is true Southern hospitality and what a fine climate, water, etc., as well as a great cotton market. 44 Now, dear Collier's, I want to thank you for your fearless manner in attacking all those quack medi cines, for it is high time for them to be suppressed, and you deserve the credit for coming boldly to the front, for it seems no one eLe had the courage . 44 1 like youn, candor in defending that grand old man, General Robert E. Lee, but will stop for fear 1 have rijn over my 1,000 words. Please promise me you will not put this in the waste-basket. 4 4 Very respectfully, 44 MRS. CAROLINE E. GAY.” Waste-basket! Inscribed in our hearts, rather, set up on the bright mountain peak of Hope, where the sun shines three hundred and sixty six days in the year’ We like to think of the South as one of those Blessed Islands, left in a bnzy and sometimes careless world, whore ev erything is kindness and courtesy and good cheer. Sometimes, when we are misunderstood and Southerners write us to go off and jump info the sea, this is hard to do, and we are huit and puzzled. LaGrange, however, makes our dreams come true. We are all going there some day —going to walk under the elm trees, sit on the white porticos and look out at those rose card'ns; but first and most im portant of all we will find that par ticular white portico and rose garden from which this letter came, there to greet and to thank, face to face, as we do now. in these dull words, the gracious hostess who has restored our illusions and been so kind. TEN COMMANDMENTS. 1. Thon shalt not go away from home to do thy trading, nor the ask ing of--favors. 2. Thou shalt patronize home mer chants, thy home printer, for yea. verily doth the home printer spread ever the tidings of thy goodness and greatness and many will patronize. 3. Thou shalt employ thv, home mechanics that they shall not be driv en from their homes to find bread for their little ones. 4. Thou shalt not ask credit, as goods cost much and the merchant’s brain is burdened with bills. His children clamor daily for bread, and his wife abideth at home for lack of raiment as. adoreth her sisters. Blessed, yea, thrice blessed, is the man who pays cash. 5. Thou shalt not ask for reduced prices on thine “influence,” for guile is in thy heart and the mer chant readeth thee like an open book. He laugheth thee to scorn and shout eth to his clerks, 44 Ha, ha!” G. Thou shalt do what liefh in thy power to encourage and promote the welfare of thine own town and thine own people. 7. Thou shalt not suffer thy voice of pride to overcome thee, and if oth er towns entice thee, consent thou not. for thou mayest be deceived. R. Thou shalt spend thy earnings at homo that they may return from whence they came and give nourish ment to such as may come after thee. 9. Thou shalt not bear false wit ness against the town wherein thou dwellest, but speak well of it by all men. 10. Thon shalt keep these com mandments and teach them to thy children, even unto the third and fourth generations, that they mav be made to flourish and grow in plenty when thou art, laid to rest with thy fathers. —Ex. WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN. THE FOLLY OF THE DAY. There is a wonderful ambition abroad for being “genteel.” We keep up appearances too often at, the expense of honesty; and though we may not be rich, yet we must seem to be 44 respectable,” though only in the meanest sense in mere vulgar show. We have not the courage to go patiently onward in the condition of life to which it has pleased God to call us; but must needs be in some fashionable state to which we ridiculously please to call ourselves, and all to gratify the vanity of that unsubstantial, gen teel world of which we form a p it. There is a constant struggle and pres sure for front seats in the soical ampitheatre; in the midst of which all noble, self-denying resolve is trod den down, and many fine natures are inevitably crushed to death. Whit waste, what misery, what bankruptcy, come from all this ambition to daz zle others with a glare of appare t worldly success, we need not describe. The mischievous results show th-m selves in a thousand ways—in the rank frauds committed by men who dare to be dishonest, but do not care to seem poor; and in the desperate dashes at fortune, in which the pity is not so much for those who fail as for the hundreds of innocent fami lies who are so often involved in their ruin. WHERE WILL WOMAN STOP? OR WILL SHE STOP? This is the age of the woman. And the future also is hers. It is less than fifty years since American girls were refused admis sion to colleges their brothers at tended. Now there are more women in colleges than men. Almost every agency of modern times caters to woman. Merchants vie for her cus tom. The pulpit wants her strong READ THIS! We will send you Was son’s Jeffersonian Magazine for four months at 50c. No commis sion on this offer. Send subscriptions direct to our office. 608 TEMPLE COURT The Tool Company 58 Marietta St. Bell Phone 5311 ATLANTA, GEORGIA We have a complete line of tools to meet the demand of all trades* men. 10 per cent off on Starrett’s Machinist Tools. Everything we sell Is guaranteed. Mall orders filled the same day they are received. support. Ute press seeks her favor and patronage. Woman is no long er behind the throne. She is the throne. All this change of a few years seems a radical departure. But cast your eyes over Europe. I he women of Britain are pounding at the doors of parliament seeking suffrage. In Germany the gajes of the ancient universities have been lifted from their hinges to let in women. In Italy the parliament has appointed, a commission to arrange, if possible, for equal suffrage. The French women have gone ahead of men in the field of scien tific discovery. And in England, of the twelve best books, every one was written by a woman. Even in daik st Russia women physicians are teaching the doctors of the woild s advance methods in hospi tal work. But most striking of all, Finland—think of it-Finland! nineteen women now occupy seats as lawmakers in the legislature of that duchy! In point of fact, in its appreciation and advance of women—great as that advance has been America is in some respects tai- behind Finland. This is the wom an!’s age. In this new equation of modern life is man to be the X—the unknown quantity?—St. Louis Star. CAUSE OF THE EXODUS. 44 He110, George! What’s every body crowding out of the drawing room for? Have refreshments been announced?” George— 44 N0; but Aunt Matilda is getting ready to sing.”—London Tit- Bits. WARNING TO SUCKERS. i 4 4 Do you thing cabbage is unwhole some?” said the dyspeptic. 44 1 t depends somewhat,” answered the food expert, “on whether you eat it or try to smoke it.’’— Wash ington Star. PAGE ELEVEN